Blog

The Proliferation of Web Development Languages

March 1 2017, 10:23 am

by Wes Sovis

General

New Web Development Languages

Ask any web developer who has been in the industry for ten or more years if the industry has changed at all, and chances are that he or she will give you a look of exasperation. As society moves towards using technology for every conceivable scenario, and the relies on software to run that technology, the web development industry has been transformed. The sheer number of new programming languages, new technologies, and new, hip trends have proliferated to the extent that the modern web developer needs constantly be learning in order to stay at the top of their game.

In the past, a web developer could count themselves as up to date if they had mastered the following:

JavaScript

HTML

CSS

SQL

PHP (and/or other server-side languages)

But due to the fast and extensive proliferation of newer technologies, developers worth their salt also need to have extensive experience with the following - and this isn’t even a complete list.

JavaScript

JQuery

React.js

Angular.js

Node.js

HTML

XML

JSON

git

PHP standard - PSR0, PSR1, PSR2

Vagrant

PHP frameworks

CodIgniter

Laravel

Symfony2

Yii

Cake

Bootstrap

New Languages and New Skill Sets

The implications of this vast diversity of languages and technologies are that the industry has seen a divergence in skillsets of late. While there have always been developers who have been better front-end developers than they are backend developers, these new technologies have forced a lot of developers to designate themselves as such by default. In short, someone may call themselves a front-end developer not because they can’t do backend work, but because their front-end expertise is such that they’re immensely more valuable to a company or client using their front-end skill set.

What This Means for Clients

We really bring this topic up to show the importance of working with a web development partner who can count frontend and backend specialists on their staff. While we’d never say that a developer is incapable of being a “Jack of All Trades,” we’re sure you know how the rest of that saying goes, and to keep it in mind when a single developer says they can do it all. Working with a team that has experience with all the different technologies is a much safer bet and will almost certainly guarantee a better outcome for your project.

Swell Development is a web development company based in Grand Rapids, MI. With 40 years of combined experience, we offer exceptional web development expertise at affordable Midwest rates. Be sure to follow us on Facebook or Twitter, or send us an email to introduce yourself.

Swell Development is a web development company focused on providing high-quality web development services. While we specialize in custom web application development, we also offer hosting services, IT administration expertise, and network consulting to our clients.